Will deer harvest numbers continue decline?

December 9, 2013

MARQUETTE — With the effects of severe late winter weather impacting this year’s deer harvest, state wildlife biologists said if current wintry conditions persist next year’s deer hunting seasons ma......

MikeHawkburns420

OUCH a pothead LOL!!! I wish you were right in front of me so i could say KISS MY ASS to your face!!! If you dont like reading others opinions, why not crawl back under your rock and quit reading them!!??

arealyooper

Resipsa

I hunt both above and below the Bridge. Below the DNR allows hunters to buy a doe permit every day of the season. Hunters near me shoot every deer they see including "dog" sized young deer. This year one hunter shot 6 doe. The DNR biologists cant' figure out why the deer are down? New deer come from does. If does are killed, no new deer. Duh! I went from seeing 60+ deer per day 15 years ago to now seeing 2 doe this year with their 3 fawns. It is not rocket science. Predators do add to the decline but not as much as doe permits do. Stop the doe permits for 5 years!

wereintroublenow

MikeHawkburns420, wolf may have been natural here once, but not in great numbers, and as I recall, they didnt have to "reintroduce" deer into the area. What the DNR wont tell you is its their mismanagment that has caused the problems, Ok, so lets assume they are telling the truth that it was a bad winter for the deer (I dont believe this for a minute) why didnt they adjust the amount of antlerless deer permits? They never mention that they have been issuing countless doe permits and farm permits but dont encourage coyote hunting. I think its the coyotes that kill more fawns than wolves, but the wolves dont help either. Maybe if they had a real hunt instead of selling a thousand permits or more to kill only 40 or so wolves. We have an incompetent game management problem. And it wont be fixed because they wont admit to their failures.

BravesRock

we need fewer people feeding deer, not more. It draws them into populated areas where more get hit by cars, and it changes their feeding habits and encourages them to feed at night once they know where to find a reliable food source. That translates to reduced hunting success due to fewer deer feeding during the day. Deer have always co-existed with predators -- it is the humans that are screwing things up.

arealyooper

The cougars have no impact on the herd,but the wolves and coyotes need to die !! At least most of them do !! I said in earlier posts that the deer herd was in bad shape,but nobody agreed !! Well now you can see I was right. We need to take some drastic measures to get rid of some of these coyotes and wolves!! Each spring the wolves and coyotes are feasting on the young fawns!! I am going to kill coyotes all winter long as many as I can!!!! When they open wolf season in Delta and Menominee counties,I will be the first one in line to get a permit. I will feed the deer all winter long and I hope others who have deer around there homes will do the same! I think we should have a ban on shooting does for two years, three would be better!! The youth hunt needs to be cancelled or at least moved to December, so our bigger bucks have time to breed with the does!! It will be worse next year, just wait and see!!!